Patricia Bracewell was born and raised in California, where she taught literature and composition before embarking upon her writing career. Her debut novel, Shadow on the Crown (2013, Penguin U.S., Harper Collins U.K.), is set in 11th century England and grew out of her admiration for a remarkable queen, Emma of Normandy, whose life has been all but buried in the footnotes of recorded history. Her second novel, The Price of Blood (2015, Penguin U.S., Harper Collins U.K.), continues the story of Queen Emma during the Viking invasions of England in the reign of Æthelred the Unready. The Steel Beneath the Silk (2021, Bellastoria Press, U.S. and U.K.) is the final novel in the trilogy, exploring the role that Queen Emma may have played in the Danish conquest of England. Patricia served as Writer-in-Residence at Gladstone’s Library in Wales in 2014, and she returns to Britain as often as possible. She and her Canadian husband have two grown sons and live in Northern California.